Listing Text

OTTERTON OTTERY ROAD
SY 08 NE
3/190 Pitson Farmhouse
11.ll.52
GV II

House, former farmhouse. Late C15 - early C16 origins, thoroughly refurbished and
enlarged in early C17. Plastered cob on stone rubble footings; stone rubble stacks
topped with C20 brick and including one early C17 stone ashlar and rubble chimney
shaft; thatch roof.
L-shaped building. The main block faces east-north-east, say east, and has a 3-
room-and-through-passage plan with the inner room at the right (southern) end. The
rear passage doorway is now blocked. The inner room has an end stack, and the
service end room has a large end kitchen stack with oven projection and the hall has
a projecting front lateral stack with a winder stair alongside on the front side.
To rear of the inner room there is a parlour block projecting at right angles. This
contains a winder stair off the back of the hall and an inserted rear end stack. It
is evident that the main block continued left, beyond the service end kitchen, as a
barn but this part has been demolished. Outshot to rear of service end kitchen.
Main house is 2 storeys.
Irregular 4-window front of C19 and C20 replacement casements, most with glazing
bars, but the one over the front passage doorway has rectangular panes of leaded
glass. This doorway contains a late C19 door and there is a C20 inserted door at
the left end into the service end kitchen. The hall stack projects forward a little
immediately to right of the front passage door. It is built of coursed small blocks
of local brown-coloured conglomerate sandstone with a hollow chamfered Beerstone
plinth, weathered offsets and a tall double chimney shaft with large cream-coloured
Beerstone quoins. The small fire window on the right side has a Beerstone frame.
It has been extended a short distance with C20 brick. The roof is gable-ended to
left and hipped to right. On the right return wall there is an early C17 oak 4-
light window frame with ovolo-moulded mullions at first floor level to the rear
block. It contains an iron casement and rectangular panes of leaded glass. The
rear block roof is gable-ended. On the left end wall of the front block the gable
is carried a little further from the present end wall on a side-pegged jointed cruck
identical to those inside (details below) indicating that the early C17 building
once continued further in that direction. The rear of the service end kitchen is an
outshot built of brick and rubble with a corrugated asbestos lean-to roof. This may
well be a rebuilding of an earlier taller outshot since there is a blocked first
floor doorway here.
Interior: the only original feature is the truss over the upper end of the passage.
The lower part is plastered over but is apparently a true or jointed cruck truss.
The apex indicates a late C15-early C16 date; a yoke holding the principals either
side of the slot for a square set ridge (Alcock's apex type H). It is heavily
smoke-blackened on both sides from an open hearth fire. The infill is later
(probably mid C16) since it is sooted only on the hall side.
As far as can be seen, apart from the outside cob walls, the rest of the structure
and the rear block date from the massive early C17 refurbishment. In the through
passage the partitions either side are plastered although that on the hall side is
reported to be C19 brick. The service end kitchen has a soffit-chamfered and
scroll-stopped crossbeam and although the kitchen fireplace has been reduced in size
its massive soffit-chamfered oak lintel shows. The oven here is C19. The hall has
a 3-bay ceiling. The cross and half beams have broad soffit chamfers and unusual
bar-roll-scroll stops. The fireplace is Beerstone ashlar (where it has not been
rebuilt with C19 and C20 brick) with an oak lintel and chamfered surround. The
lintel also has a soffit-chamfered cornice. The upper end crosswall between hall
and inner room is said to be built of cob and brick. The inner room shows no
carpentry detail and the fireplace is a C20 grate. The rear block was originally
divided by an axial partition according to the stops on the crossbeam. A narrow
strip on the northern side was apparently divided off. Over here the beam is
soffit-chamfered with scroll stops. It must have housed a small lobby and a winder
stair. Over the larger room the beam is soffit-chamfered with the same stops as
those used in the hall indicating that this was a room of high status, most likely a
parlour. The fireplace here is blocked.
On the first floor the main partitions are probably C17. The inner room chamber is
larger than the inner room but this was not an internal jetty. The partition was
erected when the hall was floored. The divided shaft of the hall stack suggests
that there is a C17 fireplace to the hall chamber but if so it is blocked. Apart
from the late C15-early C16 truss the roof throughout is carried on early C17 side-
pegged jointed cruck trusses. Where they can be seen (including that one from the
demolished barn which is now exposed on the northern end) they have pegged and
shaped lap-jointed collars.
Pitson is an attractive and interesting farmhouse. Despite the major early C17
refurbishment the house retains its late medieval plan form.

Listing NGR: SY0912688459

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